Free Bible Commentary
“Second Peter 3:17-18”
Categories: Second Peter“You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”
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We have had enough inspired warnings to know “beforehand” that people are going to pervert and distort the Scriptures, and we must be on our “guard” against their untruthful teaching. Religious “error” is rife in the world today and Peter was not afraid to call it what it is. It matters what we believe, what we teach, and how we worship, and in fact, these have eternal implications. One doctrine or one church is not just as good as another, and all deviations from the Gospel do not stand up to the test of truth (1 John 4:1).
If we are not very careful and fail to lay a firm scriptural foundation, we can easily get “carried away” by false teaching that appeals to our pride or pleasure. The only effective defense against falling from our “own steadfastness” is, in a word: KNOWLEDGE! If we are slack or stagnant in our Bible study we will not “grow in the…knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (verse 18), and we will be swept away in a flood of religious error and consumed. The “untaught” (verse 16) are the most likely to be “carried away by the error of unprincipled men.” God’s people are destroyed when knowledge is lacking (Hosea 4:6).
When we grow our knowledge of God’s word the Lord increases the “grace” (favor, goodness) that He bestows on us. We will be blessed a thousand times over for the great effort we put into a lifelong pursuit of diligent Bible study. If eternal salvation wasn’t enough motivation to keep us committed to the enduring word of God (and it should be), all the spiritual blessings we reap should be more than ample reason to keep us active, attentive and ardently devoted. “Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.” (1 Peter 2:1-3)
To Christ “be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity.” Christ deserves all the glory of deity because He was God manifested in the flesh. Jesus said that all should “honor the Son even as they honor the Father” (John 5:23), and the Apostle Peter took that imperative very seriously (1 Peter 1:3; 2 Peter 1:1). The Creator of the Universe descended to this earth, humbly took on the form of a human being, lived perfectly, died painfully, arose triumphantly and ascended royally to save us from our sins, reign over us as King and provide us a home in heaven. How could we not desire to live our lives to glorify Him?!
Lord willing we will have a short introduction to the epistle of First John for tomorrow.
Have a glorious day!
-Louie Taylor
